The data collection and data analysis components of information/computing system readiness assessment are often discussed but never fully understood. Many issues have been identified, but no single mapping of the solutions has been developed to ensure all capability gaps are addressed adequately and their progresses are tracked vigorously. A number of efforts have been pursued in the past but the returns on investment often did not justify the initial costs. The lack of clarity in the data collection and data analysis process poses a multitude of problems; therefore, a framework must be addressed to help government and corporate activities understand the capability gaps in the overall collection and analysis process as well as its impact to the product life cycle cost. This strategy will ensure proper review of state-of-the-art technologies and further innovations can be incorporated to improve our assessment capability for information/computing system readiness and supportability need. An improved framework provides a way forward to closing the current capability gap that can significantly impact our ability to measure and improve system readiness and lifecycle sustainment. For example, in terms of government entities, the Navy has a series of strategic objectives which involve improving fleet readiness, advancing new capabilities to the fleet, and improving total ownership cost of naval combat systems. In order to meet these strategic objectives, one should first examine the current data collection and analysis process to determine where capability gaps and new technologies could be implemented before finalizing a comprehensive layout that will be used to support the strategic objectives.
Today the data collection and analysis process is manual and tedious. In the context of the Naval information systems, each system has its own method of collecting data, and synchronizing disparate systems both on ship and on shore is difficult. Large scale continuous data collection is rare due to its impacts to sailor/technician operation and bandwidth constraint of particular computing network. Some legacy systems lack the built-in-tests and prognostics requirements so implementation for health monitoring is difficult. Another challenge with data analysis is the ability to relate various data sets into productive recommendations for future system improvements and device maintenance. While a lot of data has been slowly gathered throughout the years, there have not been adequate studies to evaluate the correlation between the different data types. The outcome is that a majority of the recommendations are still greatly influenced by the interest and experience of the subject matter expert, without sufficient quantitative data to support or legitimize the result. Further, most data collection and data analysis capabilities do not integrate directly to the operations support team and its remote support capability, delaying fleet support responses that could otherwise mitigate impending issues effectively.
Lastly, today's model for supporting local or remote systems lacks the dynamics of supporting a force level integration, specific mission, unique technological objectives. One example, of force level integration involves merging data analysis across a multitude of deployed/remote systems and joint assets to formulate a robust response sequence that adequately responds to challenges posed by adversaries or competitors. There is also no objective based modeling tailored to measure fleet/system readiness and capabilities where systems may be under adverse conditions with emergent part failures and delay in logistics support. The result of these gaps prevents remote maintenance centers from visualizing a more refined picture of the system status/remaining life and measuring the system's ability to accomplish the ongoing technical objective. The dynamics of the force level integration and the underlying data are also not designed to integrate into future system design and system life cycle management, thus generating a process gap in how operation and sustainment should quantitatively influence new system development. Accordingly, an improved data collection and analysis framework is needed to adequately address the various aforementioned challenges.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure a system for data collection and analysis is provided, comprising a first network having a first plurality of system elements and a second plurality of system elements; a first collection device communicably coupled to the first plurality of system elements and configured to receive data communications from each of the first plurality of system elements and transmit the data by way of a first network protocol; a second collection device communicably coupled to the second plurality of system elements and configured to receive data communications from each of the second plurality of system elements and transmit the data by way of the first network protocol; a data management system communicably coupled to the first and second collection devices and configured to receive the data transmitted by the first and second collection devices and store the data in a download directory disposed within the data management system; a second network communicably coupled to the first network, the second network having a support server providing secure data communications to an external network and a secure transfer system that receives data from the external network and monitors data communications transmitted from the first network to the second network and from the second network to the external network; a communication network communicably coupled to the second network and providing a communications link between the second network and the external network, the communication network including one or more computing programs accessible by a user in the external network; and a data analysis network communicably coupled to the second network by way of the communication network, wherein the data analysis network is the external network and is configured to retrieve data from the second network through the communication network; wherein the data analysis network includes a management server that stores the retrieved data, the management server including logic configured to at least one of analyze the retrieved data and determine remaining useful life (RUL) of at least one system element, identify a failure mode associated with the at least one system element, and determine a maintenance action sufficient to remedy a system failure corresponding to the identified failure mode.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure a system for data collection and analysis is provided, comprising an operations maintenance network having a first plurality of system elements and a second plurality of system elements; a data management system disposed in the operations maintenance network and communicably coupled to the first and second plurality of system elements and at least one collection device, the data management system being configured to receive data communications from each of the first plurality of system elements and each of the second plurality of system elements, wherein the data communications are received by way of the at least one collection device; a communication network communicably coupled to the operations maintenance network and providing a communications link between the operations maintenance network and an external network, the communication network including one or more computing programs accessible by a user in the external network.
The system further includes a support server disposed in the operations maintenance network and communicably coupled to the data management system, the support server providing secure data communications to the external network; a secure transfer system disposed in the operations maintenance network and communicably coupled to the support server; the secure transfer system being configured to receive data from the external network and to monitor data communications transmitted from the operations maintenance network to the external network; and a data analysis network communicably coupled to the operations maintenance network by way of the communication network, wherein the data analysis network is the external network and is configured to retrieve data from the operations maintenance network through the communication network; wherein the data analysis network includes a management server that stores the retrieved data and logic configured to at least one of analyze the retrieved data and determine remaining useful life (RUL) of at least one system element, identify a failure mode associated with the at least one system element, and determine a maintenance action sufficient to remedy a system failure corresponding to the identified failure mode.
In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure a method in a system for data collection and analysis is provided, comprising collecting, by at least one collection device, data from at least one system element of a plurality of system elements, the collection device and the plurality of system elements each being disposed in a first network; detecting, by a fault detection logic, one or more fault conditions associated with at least one system element of the plurality of system elements, the fault detection logic being associated with at least one computing circuit of the at least one system element; receiving, by a data management system, the data collected by the at least one collection device, wherein the data is received by way of a first network protocol, is stored in a download directory disposed within the data management system, and indicates one or more fault conditions associated with the at least one system element; displaying, by a graphical user interface, one or more fault conditions associated with at least one system element, the one or more fault conditions being displayed based on the application of logic associated with a computing circuit of the data management system, the logic including one or more fault detection protocols and one or more fault isolation protocols that cooperate to isolate a fault condition to a particular system element.
The method further includes, providing, by a communication network, a data link between the first network and a second network, the communication network including one or more computing programs accessible by a user in the external network and wherein the data link provides secure data communications between the first and second networks; analyzing, by a management server disposed in the second network, data retrieved from the first network through the communication network, wherein the management server stores the retrieved data and applies logic to analyze the retrieved data; and, wherein analyzing includes at least one of determining a remaining useful life (RUL) of at least one system element, identifying a failure mode indicated by a fault code associated with the at least one system element, and determining a maintenance action sufficient to remedy a system failure corresponding to the identified failure mode.
In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure a system for data collection and analysis is provided, comprising a first network having a first plurality of system elements and a second plurality of system elements; a first collection device communicably coupled to the first plurality of system elements and configured to receive data communications from each of the first plurality of system elements and transmit the data by way of a first network protocol; a second collection device communicably coupled to the second plurality of system elements and configured to receive data communications from each of the second plurality of system elements and transmit the data by way of a second network protocol. The system further includes a data management system communicably coupled to the first and second collection devices and configured to receive the data transmitted by the first and second collection devices and store the data in a download directory disposed within the data management system; a second network communicably coupled to the first network, the second network having a support server providing secure data communications to an external network and a secure transfer system that receives data from the external network and monitors data communications transmitted from the first network to the second network and from the second network to the external network; and a communication network communicably coupled to the second network and providing a communications link between the second network and the external network, the communication network including one or more computing programs accessible by a user in the external network.
The support server stores the retrieved data and includes logic configured to at least one of: analyze the retrieved data, determine remaining useful life (RUL), determine a performance degradation pattern of at least one system element, identify a failure mode associated with the at least one system element, evaluate a plurality of impacts of the failure mode to a plurality of objectives of the first plurality of system elements and second plurality of system elements, and determine a maintenance action sufficient to remedy a system failure corresponding to the identified failure mode. The system further includes a data analysis network communicably coupled to the second network by way of the communication network, wherein the data analysis network is the external network and is configured to retrieve data from the second network through the communication network; wherein the data analysis network includes a management server having logic configured to at least one of: store data generated from the first network, the second network, and the communication network, and to service a data portal for a plurality of users to enable at least one user of the plurality of users to gain access to the data generated from the first network, the second network, and the communication network.
The data analysis network further includes an integrated data environment having logic configured to at least one of: load a plurality of data generated from the first, second, and communication networks into a database used to manage a plurality of structured data sets and a plurality of unstructured data sets, retrieve a plurality of external data from a plurality of external data sources, analyze the retrieved data, determine remaining useful life (RUL) and performance degradation pattern of at least one system element, identify a failure mode associated with the at least one system element, evaluate a plurality of impacts of the failure mode to a plurality of objectives of the first plurality of system elements and the second plurality of system elements, determine a maintenance action sufficient to remedy a system failure corresponding to the identified failure mode, correlate the plurality of data generated from the first, second, and communication network, process a plurality of text-based data using natural language processing, and generate machine readable instructions to modify an operational state of a plurality of systems disposed within the first network and the second network.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.